Put me in the category of "just don't care". New toons are created purely based on powersets for me now. One thing though, I hate the old-school hero contacts. Every now and then I do a hero arc, just to see if things are better for Janet Kellum and her ilk, either through my own added experience or gameplay additions (oro portals for example) Those arcs just always suck.
I do enjoy the Rogues Isles much more though. To this day, even on uber slotted lvl 50+1 toons, I still take careful consideration of where I'm going in Grandville, lest I end up in a swarm of Banes.
Global = Hedgefund (or some derivation thereof)
I play exclusively on Villain side for three reasons.
1. I've tried blue side on several occasions but I just never really liked Hero ATs. They just felt... bland... when compared to Villain ATs.
2. Blue side landscape is also... blah. AP, KR, SC etc, just felt like copy and paste jobs for the most part. The "go there and come back" missions are rather annoying too.
3. I don't really roleplay and hardly ever reads the plot lines anymore so I just make up my own ideals as to what being a hero and villain in this game entails. To me, being a villain is simply more interesting. That and it's quite satisfying to beat down those fraudulent Freedom Phalanx doo-gooders (kind of like giving Zac Efron or Justin Beiber a smack down).
I only play villains, it was villainside that brought me back to this game. I tried CoH when it was first released and I thought it was largely unfinnished: running around with no purpose other than to attack what seemed to be a mob of 100 hellions sitting on the side of the sreet for example.
Villains was a huge improvement, I liked the ATs better and the game seems to have evolved at a good pace since then. I tried heroside a few times since, but one foot onto Freedom/Virtue's Atlas Park sends me running home like a frightened cat.
Quote:
I have 99% villains and 1% hero which I rarely play. I like the layout of villainside and the folks there seem more mature and helpful. When I was on trial account on my hero, people talk trash, make fun of noob questions and quit team on the first wipe.|
Originally Posted by MajorTractor
I play almost all villians. It has always seemed to me that there were more young kids and new players hero side. I'd rather play with vets who don't ask me what all these enhancments in their tray are for.
Redside on Freedom really does have plenty of people, but most of the other servers I expect its pretty empty. |
I don't mind how I wrought my evil whether it comes from a boss or a scheme from the paper. As long as I smash and steal, it works for me.
Basically, it boils down to what is fun for you to play. Given my frustrating experience on hero side, I made my home (and base) on Rogue Isles.
I have villains on Triumph, Virtue and Protector. Since I lead teams, people come to me instead of me trying to join a team. On more populated servers, there's a higher rate of receiving more responses than there are spots. Even on less populated servers, I don't have trouble getting at least 5 people to join.
Mmm...
I like both sides, they both have rather unique "feel" to them.
I do believe the red side is "handicapped" versus blue in several areas such as gaining accolades in red side are much more difficult to acquire than blue side for instance, and SFs are much tougher than Blue side and less rewarding merit wise to add insult over injury. On the other hand, the mission threads in red side are more interesting and worth reading as you go, also red side do not have nearly the moronic inter zone traveling as blue side does.
With the alignment system, the matter of being forced to chose has been pretty much removed or greatly mitigated. You can align your alt either as a Vigilante or Rogue and have access to all the content of the game. But if you want to be pure as well, you can.
Something I do, to take advantage of easy blue accolade gainmanship, is that I make my villain and at level 20 turn her into a rogue! So both sides content are available to me, and commence to do blue side accolade requirements such as badge explorations and history markers, followed by the hunts of freak bosses, gears, warwolves, vampir and fake nemesis. I do the blue TFs as I progress and by the time I reach 40 I unluck my patron powers, so i can have choice between red and blue side epic powers. If I am lucky along the ways, I can catch players actually doing the rescue the psychic mission and not the Oro version, so I don't have to turn blue to otherwise acquire it. The same happens with doing Maria's Praetorian arcs towards portal jockey accolade. You can usually in global channel ask for access to Antimatter and have that one pesky rascal taken care of. You need to also keep an eye or ask when players are ready to get the multidimensional badge, a means to get Marauder, and finally the exploration badge you get from going to Nightstar's plane.
If the later becomes too difficult, just turn hero by doing the 10 tips and morality mission (I usually do these at Bricks) and then use Oro as your means to get what you need. And afterwards take the long road back t villain by going hero to vigilante and vigilante to villain.
Hugs
Stormy
I prefer playing the good guy / hero and like the feel of blueside much more than I do redside.
On the whole, I'd say my 'preferred' alignment would be Vigilante, even though currently, none of my toons actually are Vigilantes. Some are staying Hero, as they're semi-retired and just brought out for tip missions and Hero Merits. Some have swapped to Villain, as I wanted a patron pool, some of which are on the road to redemption, some are currently getting Villain Merits for a while. Most of my original Villains have gone Rogue, as they're still levelling and I've more friends on Heroes to TF with, and they're getting patrons, just aren't high enough yet.
For just the Archetypes, I generally prefer Hero ones. Defenders are my favorite, and ones where I have an 'evil' version on villains (from Pre-GR), the Heroes generally suit me more. (Better buff/debuff/survivability etc, as opposed to more damage). I prefer my Mind/Psy Dominator to my Mind/Kin Controller, however. I also prefer the Kin/Psy Defender to that Controller, too.
Plot-wise:
For Heroes, I save the day, and there'll always be some nefarious foe planning a scheme tomorrow, that I'll have to prevent. It 'feels' like I'm making a difference, I'm maintaining the norm.
For Villains, I get more and more powerful, and yet, the place stays the same. The recent arc with my cloning facility? I adored that, it felt like I was actually achieving something, and I wish there were more arcs like it. For the most part, however, I've always felt more like a Vigilante, than an actual Villain. I'd want to conquer the world, not just ruin someone's day.
Must say I'm surprised to see so many Redside supporters... I find the Rogue Isles very quiet compared to Paragon City.
Myself, I couldn't wait to get my villains blueside. None of them were ever really "villains", more rogues, so GR was a real step forward for me.
After almost 7 years, I appreciate blueside content could do with a refresh, however, I still really enjoy the Faultline story, the Croatoa arcs and (forgive me!) the Hollows story arcs.
Now, all my villains begin in Praetoria, then go blue. Just have one remaining villain emailing all my VG enhancements over bit by bit.
Redside is a bit "gloomy" for me, and the lower level story arcs are painful once you've done them enough times.
Just my opinion!!
-H
I prefer to play in the Rogue Isles. I prefer the villain ATs (though that's not the problem it had been once). I know I'm in a small minority on this, but I also prefer the way the Rogue Isles look. Each island is intriguing to me. Many places are grungy, but some are gleaming (Aeon City in Cap au Diable and the casinos in St. Martial, for example), and some are scary to me to this day (Grandville!), and all are interesting. And, given the chance, some of them are really pretty. I remember being spellbound by moonrise over Mercy when I got a new computer and was able to up my graphics. In addition, the similarities of the islands (for example, how they are often overcast) give a sense that they are a real place geographically.
As someone who creates a narrative about my characters and their lives as I play them, the Rogue Isles offer really wonderful opportunities for me to create interesting people who live in a very difficult place. Not all of my "villains" are villains, but they are all residents of the Etoile Islands. Some are patriotic, some merely want to survive, some are terrible people, some are heroes in their own eyes, but they all feel like they are a part of this coherent and seemingly real place.